Colorado - Cal Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Well it's nice to get in the win column again -- wasn't easy, Nothing's easy for this team. talked to our team at halftime about the fact that we shot 25% in the first half and had some good looks. Turned it over ten times, which again, is kind of sometimes who we are. But when you shoot 25% and you're down three and a half, it means you're doing something right means you're really battling and fighting and scratching and clawing. We did a good job of that in the first half. We didn't let our frustrations on offense leak over to our energy and execution on defense. That's a sign of maturity. That's a sign of mental toughness. When our team doesn't do what they're supposed to do, I get on them and when they do what they're supposed to do, I have to praise them. My hat goes off to our guys tonight for not letting the offensive frustrations, especially in the first half leak over the defense. I thought for the most part, we had some bonehead plays late in the game where we gave them some easy buckets -- but for the most part, we executed [the] defensive game plan pretty darn well in.”
On F Tristan da Silva taking a leadership role
"Tristan has been playing at such a high level the two and a half -- three weeks. Earlier in league play, he had his ups and downs and he had his inconsistencies so to speak. Lately, he's been playing at a pretty darn high level. Tonight, we got some support. [G] KJ [Simpson] I thought played really, really well. [F] Luke O'Brien and [G] Jalen Gabbion came off the bench and really gave us a shot in the arm I thought. We had multiple guys play well, but Tristan is obviously very, very important to us. We want him to be aggressive offensively and he was the second half and it showed."
On how the team adapted to the physicality of the game
"Well, we finally got to the free throw line. Cal's a physical team -- they're good. We only out-rebounded by one. Credit goes to Mark Fox and the job he and his staff have done they've had a rough year. They've won three games and just keep battling. They're not an easy out by any means. We saw that tonight. We knew it was going to be a physical game and we had to be aggressive and I thought our guys were aggressive. To get to the free throw line that many times is good now we just have to do a better job of converting, you know, 61%. Again, that's kind of who we are. 10 turnovers in the first half -- one turnover in the second half. That's kind of who we are. They have five offensive rebounds in the first half and zero offensive rebounds in the second half. That's kind of who we are. [If] We can get our consistency down we'll move to have a chance to win some games down the stretch. Credit to our team -- credit to our guys because they you know it's been rough on these kids. My heart goes out to them. I want to help them as best I can as a coach and there are times I feel helpless over there. I thought we got good looks in the first half when we didn't turn it over the 10 times. We got good looks it just didn't go in.
On how G J'Vonne Hadley is doing
"Yeah, I don't know about J'Vonne's injury -- I'll get an update tomorrow. Obviously, he didn't come back to the game so that's probably not a good sign. But I thought again, that's where Luke and Jalen really gave us a lift off the bench because we kind of have a three-headed monster at the post positions with Tristan and J'Vonne and [C] Lawson [Lovering] -- and when one of those guys goes out we're down to two guys and then the next guys up are Luke and Jalen, which they're not traditionally your quote on quote bigs. They're gonna have to play big if especially if J'Vonne is out for a while. I don't know how long he'll be out but we'll get a feel for that tomorrow. That's where you have to rely on your team and we double-teamed the ball screens, we double-teamed to post. I thought out guys did some really good things."
On how they were able to capitalize on points in transition
"Well, we were doubling ball screens to try to generate some offense with our defense and that didn't happen as much in the first half. In the second half, like you said it, it kind of cracked them open and we got some runouts. We've had some games where we've turned the other team over a lot this year and we have not converted. In fact, at Cal on New Year's Eve -- we turned them over a lot that night, but we didn't convert. We had -- literally we had five on two fast breaks. Five on three breaks. Three on two fast breaks and we couldn't finish. Tonight, we did. You should have about 1.5 points per turnover in my mind. You're not going to be 2.0 because some of them are dead-ball turnovers but the live-ball turnovers you have to convert because their defense isn't set. You're usually playing advantage basketball and we did a better job of that in the second half tonight.
On G Javon Ruffin's impact on this team
"Well his knee is still not 100%. In practice, he just doesn't have the pep in his step -- the explosiveness, the lateral quickness. He's still rounding into form. It was good to have him out there. I thought he made a really good play off of -- when we were doubling the post got to steal. He's a good shooter. He's a guy that can make a shot. I've got a lot of confidence in his jump shot. When we're struggling offensively, it's nice to have Javon but Javon's ability to defend is going to determine how much he plays down the stretch and how little he plays because, again, we cannot compromise our defense for offense."
On Javon Ruffin’s injury
“Well, he is still not 100%. He's in practice. He doesn't have the pep in his step, the explosiveness, the lateral quickness. So, he's still rounding into form. It was good to have him out there. I thought he made a good play when we were doubling the post, got a steal. He's a good shooter. He's a guy that can make a shot. I have a lot of confidence in his jump shot. So, when we are struggling offensively, it is nice to have Javon but Javon has ability to defend is going to determine how much he plays down the stretch and how little he plays because, again, we cannot compromise our defense for offense.”
On So., G KJ Simpson’s playing time and his rhythm
“KJ is important to us, and I thought he played a very good floor game. To have to have two turnovers and four assists, that is two to one, which is exactly what we want from KJ. I think eventually he can get to be a three to one or four to one guy. He didn't force the issue a lot. He is still capable of finishing better and he finished tonight, but KJ is a talented player. He's going to t through that, but I thought he didn't press tonight. I thought he made some good plays, especially to Tristan in the second half. He got in the lane and found him in the corner for three. He got Tristan ball in the post when he had an advantage and he scored. So, I thought KJ played a good floor game tonight. And he was good defensively as well.”
On his disagreement with a call
“I deserve my technical foul. I got my money’s worth.”
On if there being more offensive fouls in turnovers helped
“I think so. The good thing about an offensive foul is that the whistle stops. So, they can't score a live ball. It is not the pick six kind of turnovers that really kill you when their live ball turnovers, and they are coming down and they are playing advantage basketball. If you are going to turn it over, an offensive foul is the way to do it. But we just have to play smarter and understand that. In February in league play, everybody knows what you are doing. We know what Cal is doing. We want to know what Stanford's doing on Sunday. Stanford's going to know what we're doing. They see your scouting; your players are scouted. It gets more and more difficult to score in February. In late play it’s hard to score because there's so much data out there and people are going to try to take your strengths away and make you play to your weaknesses. And so, one of our weaknesses is just making simple plays and to try not to force the issue. Just make simple basketball plays. We do that, we're pretty good.”
On So., C Lawson Lovering’s Improvement
“Our fans do not get to see practice. Lawson's gotten better finishing in practice. His touch has really improved. His confidence has improved. He had a couple really nice finishes there in the second half. Obviously, the important thing with him is his free throw shooting. That's something that he has got to improve on. And he will, but Lawson's making strides offensively down there, and we really encourage our guys to get him the ball. He has got to want the ball down there and we got to get on the ball down there because he can turn into a weapon for us as time moves on. Again, defensively, he was great in ball screen defense when we switched up Joel Brown multiple times, and did a great job of keeping him in front using his size and he did a good job in the double teams too. So defensively, we know how good Lawson is.”
Colorado Players
Jr., F Tristan da Silva
On the first half“I don't think it was that bad, to be honest. We just didn't make shots. We shot like 25% or something like that. We had a couple of really good looks, but we just couldn't convert them and offense comes and goes and we still played really good defense to keep us in the game even though that was one of our worst halves of the year offensively.”
On his improvement since the beginning of the season
“I'm a player that lets the game come to him so I'm not really trying to force anything. I'm trying to be aggressive, but I got a great group of guys around me who trust me and try to make plays for me. I just try to make the right decision on offense and scoring or passing or attacking in various ways. I'm just trying to be aggressive on offense.”
On leading the offense at the start of the second half
“I got some easy looks. I felt like maybe they left me open a little bit more because I wasn't playing so well, in the first half, I don't know. I got a couple of open looks and a couple of easy baskets around the rim and as I said, I'm just trying to try to play the game the right way and happened to score right out the gate in the second half.”
On G Jalen Gabbidon stepping in for G J’Vonne Hadley
“Jalen is a great player. He’s a really experienced veteran for our group, which we need. The intensity on defense that he brings and his attacking mentality on offense is really crucial for our team. We've missed him the time he was out, and we're happy that he's back and is out there being a difference maker for us.
On getting a win
“It’s awesome. We’ve just got to stay on that track.”
Jr., G Luke O’Brien
On the difference between this Cal game and the first Cal game in December“I think they scored 80 the first game or something like that and I know the first half, we shot 25% and we were only down by three in the first half, which is a huge credit to our defense. Coach talked about that and we were gonna get our shots in the second half and they're going to follow and I thought we just kept battling on defense, so that's the reason we were able to pull it out.”
On turnovers and changes coming into the second half
“I wouldn't even say there were changes really. We talked about it, and we said there were 10, we only allowed 11 per game. Obviously, we have not met that in a while. We just played really confidently in the second half. I think we get a little timid sometimes when we go to the basket, we don't know what to do, but I thought everybody was playing off the two feet really well and we're moving the ball so I thought it was a big reason why.”
On his dunk to change the momentum
“It was a good momentum thing. I don't know if that was the changing play, I was just trying to make a play to get the energy going from the crowd. I like how our team was locked in right after that, we didn't celebrate or anything we got right back to defense and a turnover and then I think we got another stop after that when they called the timeout.”
Cal Head Coach Mark Fox
Opening remarks on Cal’s 59-46 loss at Colorado
“I thought that, under the circumstances, we competed really well in the first half. We turned it over entirely too much to win on the road with 12 (turnovers) in the second half and 10 in the first. We turned it over too much, and some of that is due to the disjointed lineup that we were forced to play, but we competed well. When (our opponent) gets away from our bench, we’re not nearly as good defensively – which has been a trend – and so our second-half defense was not as strong as our first. I thought the kids competed hard and battled, but we don’t have enough firepower to get points on the board. We have to get to the line (and) we have to get some easy ones and we didn’t do enough of that tonight.”
On whether fatigue played a role in the game
“I definitely think the fatigue factor was apparent in the last 12 minutes of the game, whether that was the altitude or a lack of depth or a combination of the two. I think most certainly that had an impact.”
On any final thoughts on the contest
“We have to play with a tougher mentality on the road. We played about 25 good minutes and then they made a run and we collapsed for five or six minutes. We burned all of our timeouts. We have to be able to stop the momentum on the road by getting to the foul line, getting a stop. You can’t play 25 good minutes and then take the next six or seven off; we have to be able to get late into the game. Once you can play 37-38 good minutes, you can afford to have a two or three-minute bump in the road, because home teams are going to play well. We had one poor minute to end the first half, started the second half solidly and then had a period there where we just weren’t mentally strong enough to stay with it.”